The U.S. used to only compete with Russia, but now has multiple other nations to deal with

The U.S. is losing ground to competing space agencies as
Europe, China, Russia and Japan continue to make progress in their space
programs. Even though the U.S. still has the most military satellites
monitoring Earth, both commercial and civilian space initiatives are severely
lacking when compared to its international counterparts.

There are several contributing factors into the decline of the U.S. space
agency, though immediate fixes are not evident. Even though NASA has a
long string of success, the unfortunate shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003,
budget issues, and the looming 2010 retirement of the current generation of
space shuttles are all complicating matters.

Although Russia has been a long-time competitor to NASA, the Chinese space
agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have continued to make
steady progress with its intended goals.

Along with multiple missions to Mars, China is preparing for stage two of a
three-part mission to the moon. The first step in the plan, which is
ongoing, included sending a satellite to orbit the moon. The second step
proposes launching a lunar lander before 2010, and the third step involves
collecting soil samples from the moon in the next 12 years.

The Chinese space program also has its first spacewalk scheduled for October. Griffin
admits China will likely beat the U.S. and other nations back to the moon.

India also has a developing space program that may not have the type of budget
of larger space programs, but the country still has had success launching
smaller missions that have shown good results. Its most recent success
was a satellite launch in which 10 satellites launched into orbit aboard one
rocket.

The U.S. space agency does have its own mission outline for the next 12 years,
but may struggle to meet its goals if the Orion crew vehicle is not completed
on time in 2015.

NASA used to be responsible for sending other nations' satellites into orbit,
but now Russia, India, and China are the three main nations responsible for
helping Israel, Brazil, Singapore and the ESA launch satellites into space.

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Probably the most irrefutable evidence that we actually landed on the moon are the retroreflectors left at several of the Apollo landing sites. They're an array of "corner" mirrors - three surfaces at 90 degrees to each other. When light hits such a corner, it gets reflect back exactly where it came from. The same principle is used in bike reflectors and the reflective paint used on road signs.

If you aim a powerful laser at one of the landing sites, you will get a faint return from these reflectors. They're used to accurately measure the distance from the earth to the moon.